Autenticación mediante DNA barcoding de especies de meros legalmente protegidas y en peligro de extinción, sometidas a explotación pesquera, incluyendo el mero Goliat Epinephelus itajara

Fishing strategies are constantly changing to meet the needs for new or alternative food sources. Consequently, management of fishing activities regarding rates of exploitation is essential, as a number of resources have reached situations of overexploitation. The aim of the present study was to use DNA barcoding from the goliath grouper and other exploited epinephelids in order to provide procedures for DNA authentication to be used as evidence for combating putative illegal fishing. The species studied were Epinephelus adscensionis, Mycteroperca bonaci, Mycteroperca interstitialis, Epinephelus itajara, Mycteroperca venenosa, Epinephelus mystacinus, Dermatolepis inermis, Alphestes afer, Cephalopholis fulva, Mycteroperca acutirostris, Rypticus saponaceus, Mycteroperca marginata and Epinephelus morio. Four of these species are the main epinephelids fished in the Atlantic Ocean. Differential patterns of polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism were obtained from the species and additional single nucleotide polymorphisms were also detected among the four main epinephelids studied. The procedures proved very efficient and we suggest their applicability to the other fish groups as a way to control illegal capture and retail around the world, especially in cases in which filleting and other forms of de-characterization cause a lack of morpho-anatomical key characters.Las estrategias de pesca cambian constantemente para satisfacer las necesidades de fuentes de alimento nuevas o alternativas. En consecuencia, a medida que los recursos alcanzan situaciones de sobreexplotación, resulta esencial establecer procedimientos de inspección de las actividades relacionadas con las tasas de explotación pesquera. El objetivo de este estudio es proponer el uso de la técnica de DNA barcoding para establecer la verificación de la identidad del mero Goliat y otros epinefélidos, a fin de utilizarlo como evidencia para combatir la pesca ilegal cuando se sospeche su ocurrencia. Las especies aquí estudiadas fueron Alphestes afer, Cephalopholis fulva, Dermatolepis inermis, Epinephelus adscensionis, E. itajara, E. morio, E. mystacinus, Mycteroperca acutirostris, M. bonaci, M. interstitialis, M. marginata, M. venenosa y Rypticus saponaceus de las cuales cuatro constituyen las más pescadas en el Océano Atlántico. Fueron encontrados patrones diferenciables de PCR-RFLPs para todas las especies y, además, fue posible detectar SNPs adicionales entre las cuatro especies más explotadas. Los procedimientos aquí empleados fueron muy eficaces por lo que sugerimos su aplicabilidad a otros grupos de peces como medida de control de la captura y comercialización ilegal a nivel mundial, particularmente en aquellos casos en los que el fileteado y otras formas de procesamiento que alteran las características anatómicas y morfológicas impiden su identificación

Avaliação da eficiência das metodologias de problem based learning e rotação por estações em conjunto durante o ensino de robótica

Com o ensino de programação cada vez mais presente nas escolas, metodologias de ensino eficazes se fazem necessárias para desenvolver e estimular a aprendizagem. Nesta pesquisa tivemos como objeto de estudo a construção e avaliação de um curso de programação utilizando kits robótica Lego. O desenvolvimento do curso abordou o uso de duas metodologias ativas: Baseada em Projetos e Rotação por Estações. Como instrumentos metodológicos de softwares foram utilizadas as ferramentas Code.org, Kahoot e Scratch, com foco em estimular o interesse nas aulas e conteúdos. Estas ferramentas foram utilizadas, também, para gerar índices de aprendizagem, de forma avaliativa juntamente com alguns critérios de observações pré-definidos, um pré-teste e pós-teste, realização de desafios e entrega do projeto. Onde, por fim, a pesquisa resultou, no geral, em ganhos significativos de aprendizagem dos pilares do pensamento computacional e do desenvolvimento individual dos alunos

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio